Radfem 2013 and the MRAs

[MooncupGoddess]

As many of you will remember, the Radfem 2012 conference in London was explicitly open only to born women and consequently attracted lots of condemnation and anger from people who saw this as transphobic. It was kicked out of its original venue at Conway Hall and went underground (very successfully in the end).

This year Radfem 2013 has not explicitly banned transwomen... but instead it's come under attack from Men's Rights Activists, who have staged a demo at the planned venue, the London Irish Centre, while making lots of unpleasant and ridiculous claims about how radical feminists want to murder small boys and the like. As a result the venue is threatening to cancel the booking.

www.mralondon.org/

bugbrennan.com/2013/04/20/statement-from-rad-fem-2013/

I have mixed feelings about the whole trans issue but have no hesitation in declaring the MRAs utter misogynist knobbers and am disappointed the London Irish Centre has seemingly caved into them.

Mmm, I see what you mean. I am used to 'pet' and 'love' so I don't think the familiarity bothers me. I used to enjoy the very earnest communist bloke I knew, who liked to refer to his mates as 'comrades'.

I like 'sisters', though Sister Tunip sounds a bit nun-like.
I don't understand 'spot me with part of your light' but I am holding Uranio in the light in a Quaker sort of way.
In fact, I think I will do that to the MRAs, too. And Elohim.

The London Irish Centre quite rightly cancelled the event because it was being discriminatory. It doesn't matter who brought that to the attention of the LIC, that is a separate discussion.

If you too are happy to discriminate against transgender women then you will celebrate this. I hate discrimination, it weakens the feminist cause to discriminate against a whole group of women.

Shame on anyone who does.

Erm ... how was inviting transwomen to attend discriminatory? Please do explain that one.

In what way was it being discriminatory notfluffyatall?

Oops, sorry, cross posted with LRD

No worries!

Have you seen the filth some of the RadFem followers spew about trans women? I'd be distancing myself from that lot. Hateful doesn't quite cover it. I don't like it from men and I don't like it just because they have vaginas either.

If the EDL wanted to hold a conference there I'm pretty sure they'd get the bums rush too.

And which transwoman would subject herself to speakers like Cathy Brennan, google that little peach.

They are as hateful as any MRA group I have ever come across.

Sorry, you still haven't said in what way the conference is discriminatory

notfluffy, I try to be as good a radfem as I can be, and I would love you to tell me where I'm spouting 'filth'. Or any of the other rad fems on this thread.

Or are we once again talking about those hypothetical rad fems who don't exist? Or people who aren't actually speaking at radfem 2013?

This conversation feels a bit as if you didn't read the thread, you just jumped in assuming things - unfair?

Ooh let's see now... Have you seen some of the filth some of the trans activists spew about rad fems? I'd be distancing myself from that lot... etc.

Eugh. Another RadFem here, never made any personal comments towards or regarding trans people. Please stop tarring us all with the same brush as you have applied to a sample of internet nutters. Thanks.

It's a conference not the neuremberg rally. Funnily enough there are speakers and delegates with a range of views and interests. They haven't signed up to a 20 point pledge of "we are radfems. This is what we believe".

Have a look at Cathy Brennan's Twitter, she is/was a booked speaker. She is a bigot, surely anyone with an ounce of decency would distance themselves.

twitter.com/bugbrennan

So radfems are all bigoted cunts? How lovely.

Isn't it more fair to say that some radfems are bigoted? And (as stated copiously upthread) don't all share the same views of trans people?

Given NotFluffy's use of misogynistic language I assume she does not identify as a feminist anyway, so I am not specially interested in her opinion about feminism.

Hey all,

This is my first time posting on mumsnet! Just thought I would pop in to clarify a few things. I quite enjoyed reading through the discussion here. And laughed out loud about the king Herod thing!!!

We have released a statement about our legal position... That it is completely within the law for female peoples to meet. You can read more here: sisterhoodispowerful.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/interim-legal-statement-by-radfem2013-organisers/

Also at this stage we are not giving up on holding the conference at the London Irish centre. We are asking for women to email the venue to support women's right to meet in peace and safety.

Contacts:
David Barlow
[email protected]
Philip Atkins
[email protected]

Thanks sisters,

Looks like you have some pretty good discussions in here. Will have to come visit when I have more time.

Thanks for the details all. I am sure you realise that those of us who feel that having transphobic speakers is wrong and any attempt to exclude them is wrong will also be mailing the addresses given :D

Trans people can transition legally from male to female or vice versa, StickEmUp - so their passports would be changed at that point.

The only mention I can remember of the trans issue at last year's conference (though I wasn't at all of it) is Sheila Jeffreys saying that she was concerned that a lot of young butch lesbians now transition to being male, undergoing complex and painful medical procedures and not always ending up happy in their new identity, rather than accepting they are masculine-seeming women. I can't comment as to the veracity of this phenomenon or not but I don't see why Jeffreys can't report what she's observed in this case (assuming she's not making it up of course!).

I find Cathy Brennan's website rather unpleasant and aggressive, but hey, I find Iain Duncan Smith's views on poor people unpleasant and aggressive, I still think he has a right to air them in public.

'Thanks for the details all. I am sure you realise that those of us who feel that having transphobic speakers is wrong and any attempt to exclude them is wrong will also be mailing the addresses given :D'

Absolutely, I'm on it right now. Also, I wonder if allecto is the allecto from radfem hub, seems likely.

Hi allecto.

Nice to 'see' you on here.

I agree with mrsr - the personal attacks on radical feminists are getting tedious and annoying. Would you really go around saying 'well, Malcolm X advocated violence therefore everyone involved in the civil rights movement must be violent! I bet that Martin Luther King is just the same!' No, you wouldn't. Because it would look ridiculous.

And those in defense of RadFem have no problem with the transphobic speakers who are/were welcomed at the conference? Ok, maybe not all RadFems support this, but I wouldn't be supporting or attending anything that promoted bigotry or supported bigots. End of. Silence in situations like this is compliance, those against transphobia should be boycotting RadFem and making a noise that in this instance they are not representing your view.

Unfortunately, out there in the ether it's just looking like if you support RadFem you support transphobia.

This has been discussed upthread - what did you reckon to that bit ofhte discussion?

Accusing people of being transphobic is just as much a personal attack as accusing them of being racist or sexist - it's not ok. And no, being a radical feminist does not mean you 'support transphobia'. It means you believe sex discrimination is the root problem in our society and you want women liberated from oppression.